Trump Is Now Reportedly Seeking Advice on Shifting Focus from Epstein • Franknez.com

Back in the sweltering heat of a Tampa summer conference, with headlines about his old pal Jeffrey Epstein closing in like a summer storm, Donald Trump picked up the phone to his inner circle and let loose.

Why, he wanted to know, couldn’t this story just die?

And in a moment that’s equal parts deflection and nostalgia, the president reportedly told his aides that folks today just don’t get it: “People don’t understand that Palm Beach in the 90s was a different time.”

That nugget, unearthed in a deep dive by the Wall Street Journal, captures the raw frustration Trump felt as Epstein’s shadow loomed large over his White House.

It was day two of a July conservative gathering, and Trump was dialing up influential allies, venting about the relentless scrutiny and begging for ways to make the buzz fade.

Claims of the Report

Epstein Victims Now Condemn Trump For Meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell

The report, as reported by The Daily Beast, paints a picture of a frantic scramble inside Trump World, where aides fumbled for messaging that stuck—pushing the line that Trump had “fallen out” with Epstein long before the financier’s 2006 arrest, even as fresh details kept dripping out.

Epstein, the convicted sex offender who rubbed elbows with the elite until his 2019 jailhouse death, wasn’t just any acquaintance.

Trump and Epstein were thick as thieves in the glitzy orbit of Palm Beach, where Epstein was a dues-paying member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club well into the mid-2000s—long after his first brush with the law on sexual offense charges.

Photos from 1997 show them grinning together at the club, and Trump once gushed to New York Magazine in 2002 that Epstein was “a lot of fun to be with.

It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

The Struggle of The Past Catching Up

Fast-forward to now, and Trump’s tune has changed.

He claims he hasn’t been a “fan” of Epstein for 15 years and has sued the Wall Street Journal over a so-called “birthday book” compiled by Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, calling it a fake that falsely ties him to the scandal.

But the WSJ account reveals a president who, in private, worried that friends might get named in the unreleased files and even floated the idea that they could have been doctored to hurt him.

Publicly, he’s lashed out at reporters for “still talking about Jeffrey Epstein,” dismissing the whole saga as a “Democrat hoax” during an Oval Office exchange earlier this month.

The timing of this resurfacing couldn’t be more awkward.

With a House vote looming on forcing the release of Epstein’s investigative files—thanks to a bipartisan discharge petition that’s finally hit the magic number of 218 signatures—Trump’s old excuses feel like yesterday’s news crashing into today’s headlines.

Aides back then tried to steer the narrative toward Trump’s “wins,” but the Epstein drumbeat drowned it out, leading to weeks of finger-pointing and botched responses.

Trump’s gripes weren’t just about the past; they spilled into the present.

He fretted over the distraction from his administration’s achievements, telling confidants the conversation should be about those, not some long-ago friendship.

It’s a sentiment that echoes his Oval Office dismissal: “Really, I think it’s a Democrat hoax.”

But as the files teeter on the edge of public view, that “different time” line might not wash anymore—not when survivors and lawmakers from both parties are demanding answers, and Trump’s base is splitting over whether to let the truth out.

In the end, this peek behind the curtain shows a president cornered by his own history, grasping at era excuses while the world moves on.

Palm Beach in the 90s might have been wild, but 2025 demands more than a shrug and a sigh.

Also Read: GOP Members Now Believe Trump Is Named First In The Epstein Files

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